Kent State East Liverpool students from the Occupational Therapy Assistant and the Physical Therapist Assistant programs combined their fundraising efforts to make a monetary donation to Focus Hippotherapy, an outdoor equestrian facility in Berlin Center that treats individuals with a variety of diagnoses.

The students presented a check to Dawn Speece, owner and executive director of the facility who founded the program in 1993. Hippotherapy comes from the Greek word “hippos,” meaning horse, and is defined as treatment with the help of a horse.

To welcome its new birthing manikin and the infant it delivers, the Bachelor of Science in Nursing department held a baby shower complete with games, snacks, gifts and decorations.

While a traditional baby shower helps celebrate an approaching birth, this shower included a simulated birthing experience involving nursing faculty and students who are in the parent-child module of their coursework.

"Without Dr. Frank Apicella and his dedication to educating those in his community, we would not be here today, and I would not be in this program.”

That was the statement made by Asa DeSanzo, a second-year student in the Radiology Technology program on the Kent State Salem Campus, as she helped dedicate a tree planted in memory of Dr. Frank Apicella who died in August.

The following reflective essay was written by Lorene Martin, Bachelor of Science in Nursing program director at Kent State Salem and fulltime faculty member. In what has become somewhat of an annual pilgrimage, she organizes these trips to help expand her students’ view of discrepancies in our country’s healthcare system, as well as the extreme differences in social, economic and cultural opportunities among those living in the United States.

Rad Tech students on the Salem Campus celebrated National Radiologic Technology Week with several activities and a luncheon. The week is traditionally observed in hospitals and healthcare facilities across the country to recognize the role of radiologic technology and radiation therapy professionals in partner care and healthcare safety and to commemorate the discovery of x-rays on Nov. 8, 1895, by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen.